Like all islamists, not right in the head
Yepā¦
I was comparing hypothetical male and female skiers of the same dimensions, suited in the identical ski suits, using identical skis that have been identically prepared, using the same undisturbed path down the same slope covered with the same snow, at the same temperature, with the same windā¦and I posit that the male would be the heavier of the two, would go faster downhill solely due to having more inertia at any given speedā¦thus being slowed less by the frictional and impact resistance encountered.
I think males are more dense than femalesā¦in more ways than one.
Of course it depends on where you are. At my abode, the moon was damn near directly overhead. I got muscle cramps leaning back in the car to look at it.
Wow you did it again Jen, or did you just photo shop your original
How the f*ck did you get such a clear sky for this ? there arenāt any mountains high enough in your region to clear the clouds
Haha you did edit your original didnāt you
Well I happened to be awake at 04:10 GMT, looked out the back window and saw the sky obscured by high cloud. Thatās normal for the UK when there is anything interesting to see. So instead I present this:
ā¦because at 110kph the 70kg skier is losing energy to air resistance faster than his weight going down hill can replenish it.
ā¦so old that it doesnāt have reclining seats, eh?
It being quite difficult to see through the ceiling of the car, I was leaning back on the left front fenderā¦without a pillow.
Though is that not offset by his greater density? (Which was my original point as to why men are faster than women in straight line speed.)
Wind resistance is lessened by the use of acquiring an aerodynamic shape. Cyclists often wear teardrop helmets. Serious skiers use trailing edges that resemble airplane control surfaces. Big rig trucks use skirts and appendages to the backs of flat-ended box trailers.
All of these things reduce the turbulence behind the moving objectā¦thus reduce the friction, as it takes energy to produce the turbulence. The quicker the air flow returns to laminar, the less energy is wasted combating air friction.
Get yourself one of theseā¦and a pair of crooked ski poles to hide behind your butt when you bend over to reduce your frontal exposure area.
Thatās what you wear when you want to break the ski speed record, currently at 252.6kph. Gulp.
We havenāt talked about it but the shape of the skis are just as important, if not more. I think more.
ā¦but it would make you go faster than you would go without it.
Personally, I think going fast in any manner makes you miss a lot of the sceneryā¦and pleasure.
Itās something non skiers donāt really understand. Having good speed is little to do with being able to go fast. It is more to do with not going too slow /stopping when the terrain goes flat /uphill! Of course we all crouch down and the ones with the strongest legs and get lactic acid burn the least get down lower. With skis there is always a trade off. Long skis go fast but are crap for responsiveness and turns i.e. pretty hard to dodge people, trees and rocks.
Similarly true for water skis. The huge difference between them and snow skis is that the user has to lean backwardā¦or fall forward. The towing force is on the body at the shoulders.
I found it much easier to turn on a slalom ski than a pair of skis because one had the option of putting more weight on the rear foot thus lifting the front of the ski and making it easier to point the ski itself in another direction.
Leaning far enough down toward the water away from the boat, one could almost pass the boat with momentum in the direction of the boatās travel, then sharply turn toward the boat and cross its wake at a speed exceeding that of the boat.
Our ski club had a boat with an attachment designed to minimize or maximize the size of the wake wavesā¦and the observer always signaled the skier prior to the boat turning to let us know which way and how tight the turn would be. There was nothing worse than being caught on the inside of a tight turn.
I miss those days on the lake.
One feature that water skis have that are not seen on snow skis is the presence of fins. Couple that with the fact that a slalom ski tapers toward the rear end and you have the ability to turn more quickly than anyone can accomplish on the snow.
I tried a pair of really short trick skis once. They had no fins at all because they are meant to be able to plane sideways and backwards. Yes, I tried themā¦once.
No, because his area presented to the wind is not a lot different to the 100kg person
oh yes! I had forgotten about the bent ski-poles
If the skiing aero-engineers have done their CFD sims correctly, those bent ski ends behind the backside should be used to diminish and shed drag vortices. (Sort of like those little winglets that stick up at the end of modern airliner wings.
Overall good work here Exodus and asa!